Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Virology logoLink to Journal of Virology
. 1972 Jun;9(6):1047–1056. doi: 10.1128/jvi.9.6.1047-1056.1972

Bacteriophage T4 Head Morphogenesis III. Some Novel Properties of Gene 13-Defective Heads

Daniel L Hamilton 1, Ronald B Luftig 1
PMCID: PMC356411  PMID: 4113885

Abstract

The nature of phage precursors in gene 13-defective infected cells was studied by electron microscopy and pulse-chase isotopic labeling experiments. Our results suggest that both stable (20%) and fragile (70%) filled-head precursors accumulated in the absence of gene 13 product. Upon extraction, the fragile heads were found to lose most of their deoxyribonucleic acid and appeared unfilled with an average density of 1.34 g/cm3 and a sedimentation coefficient of 300S. These unfilled heads differed from empty gene 13-defective heads which did not have any associated deoxyribonucleic acid and banded at an average density of 1.31 g/cm3. Furthermore, it was found that a tsN38 (temperature-sensitive mutant in gene 13)- infected culture maintained at 41.5 C for increasing times led to a decrease in specific infectivity of 1,000S phagelike particles. Electron microscopy of these particles revealed that the decreased infectivity was due to an improper union of head and tails.

Full text

PDF
1047

Images in this article

1050Image
on p.1050
1054Image
on p.1054

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Edgar R. S., Lielausis I. Some steps in the assembly of bacteriophage T4. J Mol Biol. 1968 Mar 14;32(2):263–276. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(68)90008-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Edgar R. S., Wood W. B. Morphogenesis of bacteriophage T4 in extracts of mutant-infected cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1966 Mar;55(3):498–505. doi: 10.1073/pnas.55.3.498. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Frankel F. R. Studies on the nature of replicating DNA in T4-infected Escherichia coli. J Mol Biol. 1966 Jun;18(1):127–143. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(66)80081-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. King J. Assembly of the tail of bacteriophage T4. J Mol Biol. 1968 Mar 14;32(2):231–262. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(68)90007-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. King J. Bacteriophage T4 tail assembly: four steps in core formation. J Mol Biol. 1971 Jun 28;58(3):693–709. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(71)90034-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Laemmli U. K., Beguin F., Gujer-Kellenberger G. A factor preventing the major head protein of bacteriophage T4 from random aggregation. J Mol Biol. 1970 Jan 14;47(1):69–85. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(70)90402-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Luftig R. B. Further studies on the dimensions of viral and protein structures using the catalase crystal internal marker technique. J Ultrastruct Res. 1968 Apr;23(1):178–181. doi: 10.1016/s0022-5320(68)80041-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Luftig R. B., Ganz C. Bacteriophage T4 head morphogenesis. II. Studies on the maturation of gene 49-defective head intermediates. J Virol. 1972 Feb;9(2):377–389. doi: 10.1128/jvi.9.2.377-389.1972. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Luftig R. B., Wood W. B., Okinaka R. Bacteriophage T4 head morphogenesis. On the nature of gene 49-defective heads and their role as intermediates. J Mol Biol. 1971 May 14;57(3):555–573. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(71)90109-4. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Meezan E., Wood W. B. The sequence of gene product interaction in bacteriophage T4 tail core assembly. J Mol Biol. 1971 Jun 28;58(3):685–692. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(71)90033-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. STEINBERG C. M., EDGAR R. S. A critical test of a current theory of genetic recombination in bacteriophage. Genetics. 1962 Feb;47:187–208. doi: 10.1093/genetics/47.2.187. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Snustad D. P. Dominance interactions in Escherichia coli cells mixedly infected with bacteriophage T4D wild-type and amber mutants and their possible implications as to type of gene-product function: catalytic vs. stoichiometric. Virology. 1968 Aug;35(4):550–563. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(68)90285-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Ward S., Luftig R. B., Wilson J. H., Eddleman H., Lyle H., Wood W. B. Assembly of bacteriophage T4 tail fibers. II. Isolation and characterization of tail fiber precursors. J Mol Biol. 1970 Nov 28;54(1):15–31. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(70)90443-2. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Virology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES